Proposal:Key:headlight

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Proposal:Key:headlight

Headlight
Proposal status:	Approved (active)
Proposed by:	Tysseract
Tagging:	headlight=* Data item
Applies to:
Definition:	Signifies requirement on some roads to always use one's headlights regardless of time of day
Statistics:
Draft started:	2021-07-13
RFC start:	2021-07-13
Vote start:	2021-09-11
Vote end:	2021-09-25

The Feature Page for the approved proposal headlight is located at Key:headlight

Proposal

This proposal would add a tag headlight=* with value "required" for roads if headlights are legally required to be on at all times (known in the US as a "Daytime Headlight Section") for that road (highway=*). In countries where headlights are not otherwise required to be on at all times (The US, Spain, etc), this requirement is typically indicated on specific stretches of road by by signage, such as MUTCD/R16 in the US or R-413 signs in Spain. Unsigned sections should not be tagged with headlight=required unless an official/government map can corroborate the legal requirement. In countries where headlights are required at all times (Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Czech Republic, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia (October 15 to March 15), Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, etc.), the country itself could be tagged with headlight=required instead as it would be redundant to tag every road in the country. In countries where headlights are required outside of cities or urban areas (Finland, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Romania), the country could be tagged with headlight:conditional=required @ rural. Countries which officially recommend but do not legally require/enforce the use of headlights at all times (such as Belgium, Germany, Austria, France, and the Netherlands) could be tagged with headlight=recommended as the default but still may have headlight=required signed sections.

Tag values for this proposal:

• headlight=required law/signage requires the use of any type of headlights. For example, a "Daytime Headlight Section" in the US.
• headlight=allowed law/signage allows but does not require the use of headlights. This tag would be mainly to show country defaults for countries that do not require/reccomend headlights on all roads (like the US). This is probably rarely/never used for specific road segments unless, under some rare circumstance, the road rules differs from the country default (e.g. headlight=allowed in a country where headlight=required is the default).
• headlight=recommended law/signage recommends but does not require the use of headlights. For example, any sign stating, "Headlights Recommended in Tunnel" or "Please Use Headlights."
• headlight:conditional=required @ wet law/signage requires the use of headlights while raining. For example, MUTCD R16-6 signs in the US.
• headlight=prohibited law/signage forbids use of headlights. This will probably never be used, but should be supported for completeness and extremely rare cases.

Other values could be supported in future proposals too, such as:

• headlight:low=required law/signage requires the use of dipped/low-beams, specifically.
• headlight:high=required law/signage requires the use of high-beams, specifically.
• headlight:fog=required law/signage requires the use of fog lights, specifically.
• headlight:high=prohibited law/signage forbids use of high-beams, but not necessarily low-beams.
• headlight:high:motorcycle=required law/signage requires the use of high-beams by motorcycles.
• headlight:high:motorcycle:conditional=required @ (dawn-10:00) law/signage requires the use of high-beams by motorcycles from dawn until 10 am.
• headlight:conditional=required @ (sunset-sunrise) law/signage requires the use of headlights at night (this is assumed for pretty much any country with road laws)

headlight=yes and headlight=no should never be used as they are too vague or are potential points of confusion. Does yes mean required or allowed? Does no mean not required or disallowed? These are not as immediatly obvious as they are with the other values.

This proposal applies only to highway=* way segments (and possibly countries for country default values) but the tag could feasibly be used to mark the location of signs requiring headlights (such as MUTCD/R16).

Rationale

The primary reason for the proposal is the fact that there exists a legal requirement on many roads in the US and around the world with no tagging scheme in OSM. Tagging it would be useful for the following reasons:

• Statistics: to keep track of roads where headlights are required and compare crash statistics relating to such a requirement
• Navigation Feature: Verbally remind people to turn on their headlights in a navigation app and remind people to turn them off again when they are no longer required and/or when they finish navigation (presumably shut off their car).
• Routing/Trip Planning: to avoid potentially hazardous roads
• Routing/Trip Planning: to avoid a road if one's headlights are out
• Routing/Trip Planning: to pick a road where headlights are required for safety

This is also a revival of the previous draft proposal Proposed features/Headlights and provides an approved tagging scheme for the signs in MUTCD/R#R16: Seat Belts and Headlight Use

Tagging

Tags for roads

tag=value	description	MUTCD signage	Vienna Convention signage	Other signage
headlight=required	Use of headlights is always required by law	File:MUTCD R16-7.svg R16-7, File:MUTCD R16-8.svg R16-8, File:MUTCD R16-10.svg R16-10 California: File:MUTCD-CA S30-1.svg S30-1(CA)	🇪🇸 File:Señal luces obligatorias r-413.svg R-413 🇫🇷 File:France road sign B29.svg B29	SADC: File:SADC road sign TR133.svg TR133 🇵🇦 File:Panama road sign R-34.svg R-34
headlight=allowed	Use of headlights is allowed but not legally required (likely should not be specifically tagged, just useful to know the signs that end the headlight=required required section)	File:MUTCD R16-11.svg R16-11, File:MUTCD R16-9.svg R16-9	🇪🇸 File:Spain traffic signal s24.svg S-24 🇫🇷 File:France road sign B49.svg B49	SADC: File:SADC road sign TR133-600.svg TR133-600
headlight=recommended	Use of headlights is officially recommended but not required	Québec: File:Québec D-500.svg D-500		🇨🇳 File:China road sign 警 40.svg 警-40
headlight:conditional=required @ wet	Use of headlights is required while it is raining	File:MUTCD R16-5.svg R16-5, File:MUTCD R16-6.svg R16-6
headlight=prohibited	Use of headlights is prohibited			🇨🇴 File:Colombia road sign SR-35.svg SR-35 🇵🇦 File:Panama road sign R-35.svg R-35

The above tags should be used on roads after an official sign (such as the US and Spain examples in the above table) requires (, recommends, prohibits, etc.) headlights. In the US, this means tagging headlight=required in between File:MUTCD R16-10.svg and File:MUTCD R16-11.svg (known and often mapped as a "Daytime Headlight Section").

Data Consumers should take into account country-wide (or area-wide) laws when assuming values for untagged ways (`no` in the US, Spain, etc. and `yes` in Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, etc.).

Mappers and Data Providers should take into account the same country-wide (or area-wide) laws when assigning values. It would be extremely redundant to tag headlight=required on every road in a country where that is the default. In these cases, the tag should be removed. It may, however, be a good idea to tag the country itself one way or another so that Data Consumers have an easily accesible default. For example: countries where headlights are required at all times could be tagged with headlight=required, countries where headlights are required outside of cities or urban areas could be tagged with headlight:conditional=required @ rural, and countries which officially recommend but do not legally require headlights at all times could be tagged with headlight=recommended as the default but still may have headlight=required signed sections.

Examples

https://www.mapillary.com/app/?pKey=790110984977064

Rendering

Features/Pages affected

• Proposed features/Headlights : would need to be closed
• Headlights and Headlight should redirect to Key:headlight
• Key:headlight should be created with the tagging scheme from this page.
• Daytime Headlight should redirect to Tag:headlight=required
• Tag:headlight=required should be created with a brief description of the meaning from this proposal and a link to Key:headlight
• MUTCD/R#R16: Seat Belts and Headlight Use : could be edited to reflect the official tagging scheme for daytime headlight signs (remove note=speculative)
  • MUTCD/California/S#S30: Daylight Headlight Section: same

External discussions

https://discord.com/channels/413070382636072960/790139356903505951/864411989001502731 (#proposals on https://discord.gg/q6HnfNZ)

Comments

Please comment on the discussion page.

Voting

Voting closed

Voting on this proposal has been closed.

It was approved with 28 votes for, 1 vote against and 0 abstentions.

• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Tysseract (talk) 07:23, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. ---- Kovposch (talk) 08:55, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Aharvey (talk) 09:24, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --CjMalone (talk) 11:15, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Riiga (talk) 12:35, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. While I will probably neither map nor use it, I see benefit of one agreed tagging scheme, and the scheme appears IMHO straight forward as well as extensible :) In the text of the final page, please explicitly mention that an obligation for daytime running lights (DE Tagfahrlicht) shall not result in this tag because for non-native English speakers, the translation of "headlight" might simplilfy to any light to the front of vehicles - be they strong+high (for rural areas), medium+low (for cities), or weak+low (always on so also for daytime). --Schoschi (talk) 15:37, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. Not sure about the tagging on countries part, I think this may be better in an external "defaults" page as exists for other legislation. Otherwise seems good. --InsertUser (talk) 16:03, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Fizzie41 (talk) 23:03, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. Arlo James Barnes (talk) 23:25, 11 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. Nicely written. --501ghost (talk) 02:15, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Rayleigh1 (talk) 08:02, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Cartographer10 (talk) 12:45, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Miklcct (talk) 13:37, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. But you'd better desctibe a default condition that a highway haven't have this key, it means don't need or required. --快乐的老鼠宝宝 (talk) 15:48, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. Glad to be able to remove some "Speculative" notes from the MUTCD pages. – Minh Nguyễn ^💬 19:17, 12 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Kylenz (talk) 08:17, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Shaun das Schaf (talk) 08:57, 14 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. On a related matter, does anyone know about the equivalent tagging for snow-tyres? --Lejun (talk) 06:20, 19 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Guillemmal (talk) 11:13, 19 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. This is a succinct and well-crafted proposal. As the California Vehicle Code (my state in the USA) has an (early-2000s?) requirement to use headlights during rain, I look forward to tagging the state of California with headlight:conditional=required @ wet. There are also many "Daylight Headlight Section" highways in the state that will benefit from this tagging scheme. -- Stevea (talk) 20:28, 19 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. For reasons specified above. --Fghj753 (talk) 21:16, 19 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Reino Baptista (talk) 09:36, 20 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --H@mlet (talk) 14:43, 20 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Alexandre.moleiro (talk) 15:47, 20 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Emilius123 (talk) 17:54, 20 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Gendy54 (talk) 19:49, 20 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --Mashin (talk) 22:12, 20 September 2021 (UTC)
• Error creating thumbnail: I oppose this proposal. Its to difficult to record all local informations. Exempel: is it enough to lut THE headlite och havet you to lit even THE Backlight? Sweden t.ex. allows you to lit att "position light" ö useing THE normal headlite.... --Skinfaxi (talk) 07:19, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

  @Skinfaxi: Most (if not all) of the countries in the table above don't literally mean just the headlights, even though the sign only depicts or mentions headlights. In Sweden, is there a situation where using the headlights is required but tail lights is not, or vice versa, and is that even possible in standard cars? If so, that would justify a tail_light=* key; otherwise, that doesn't seem to be a particularly major issue. – Minh Nguyễn ^💬 07:38, 21 September 2021 (UTC)

  the proposed key headlight=required simply means that you are required to have headlights on (including daytime running lights which do not activate the rear lights). Keys detailing the specifics of the type of headlight required or forbidden are far outside this proposal, but the possibility for future poposals was left open with tags like headlight:low=*, headlight:high=*, headlight:drl=*, headlight:hight:conditional=*, etc. --Tysseract (talk) 21:41, 22 September 2021 (UTC)

  @Tysseract i think in most cases means a sign "light on" means that you have to turn on the carlight including the backlights. Such signs are for example used in Sweden in tunnel sections. Its Not Logic top warn Just the Traffic in Front of you bit not THE Cars Back of you att dangerous places.

  I have transposed this conversation to the bottom ofTalk:Proposed features/Key:headlight. please continue the conversation there. --Tysseract (talk) 23:40, 23 September 2021 (UTC)

• Error creating thumbnail: I approve this proposal. --SherbetS (talk) 12:28, 21 September 2021 (UTC)